Desinfection equipment being prepared on Saturday at a company near Seelow, Brandenburg state, Germany, where ducks have been diganosed with bird flu. Photo: EPA

About 14,000 ducks at a German farm were being slaughtered on Saturday following a bird flu outbreak.

A federal labouratory confirmed the H5N1 virus was detected at the farm near Seelow, east of Berlin - the first such finding in Germany in more than three years.

On Saturday, officials started slaughtering the farm’s ducks. Local council spokesman Tobias Seyfarth told news agency dpa that all poultry within a one-kilometre radius of the facility will be kept under observation for the next 21 days, with owners told to keep their birds where they are and report any symptoms.

The H5N1 virus normally spreads between sick poultry, but it can sometimes spread from poultry to humans. Bird flu has killed 367 people worldwide since surfacing in 2003, the World Health Organisation says.